Taking Chances
by Dyslexic CSI
Summary: Gibbs has another nightmare about Kate being shot. He has to put the uneasy feeling in his gut to a rest and so he goes to check on her. Oneshot KateGibbs


**Disclaimer:** As usual I don't own anything that seems remotely familiar.

**A/N:** this was inspired by the song Taking Chances by Celine Dion because it fit in somehow. I didn't add the lyrics cause I know how much you dislike song fics... Anyway enough of my blabbering and here it is.

**Spoilers:** None that I can think of. This is set post season one but pre season 2. Also you guys know that Twilight does no exist in my world.

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Taking Chances

His heartbeat became progressively louder and the picture in his head increasingly clearer as his mind reached a level of consciousness. Soon enough the sound of his beating heart is pounding in his ears and he recognizes the picture swimming in front of his eyes, his eyeballs moving rapidly in their sockets, behind their still closed lids.

Its his béte noir, the one where he sees Kate lying on a metal slab in Ducky's morgue, a bullet wound distorting her perfect face with a deep hole in the dead centre of her forehead. He wakes up with a cold sweat running down his temples. It takes him a second to remember where he is and only when he is fully awake does he realise that it's another nightmare. There were three in the last hour.

"Shit," he rubs his face with his hand, as though it would wipe the remnants of the dream away.

He rises from the bed slowly and makes his way to the shower, hoping that the cool water will calm his frazzled nerves and give him some sense of security, even though it's a false one. He knew it was going to be a difficult night but he didn't know just how hard it would be to find sleep. He saw from the look on Kate's face, just how draining it had been for her.

But that had happened weeks ago and Kate looked like she was dealing with it pretty well, considering how much she hated that damn terrorist. Besides, if she were having trouble dealing with it, she would have mentioned something to Abby and surely, the Goth lab tech would have come running to Gibbs to tell her about Kate's dilemma.

Still, he had to put the uneasy feeling in his gut to rest. He reached for his cellphone on the far side of the bed and dialed her number. She did not answer and he waited, hoping that she was going to respond in a few minutes. When he had let it ring for a fair amount of time, and she still had not answered, he tried her landline. It was met with the same response - there was still no answer and he was beginning to get worried. He did not want to take any chances with Ari still on the loose.

The next best plan was that he would go to her apartment and make sure that she was okay. He could have easily asked one of the boys to do it, but he wanted to make sure for himself. He did not want to rely on someone else for information on his own damn agent, who seemed to be very intent on giving him mild heart palpitations in the very late evening.

He grabbed his coat and weapon and headed out the door, to Kate's apartment. He tried calling her again and still he did not get any answer. For a split second he thought that she might have been avoiding him, but he knew it was an unfounded fear, because she would not do so, knowing that Ari was around and they both knew he had taken a special interest in her. No, she would not do that to her boss, or her friends.

Gibbs arrived at her building roughly fifteen minutes after he had left his house, which was a record, because it was a forty-five minute drive from his house to hers. He had just set a new record and he smiled to himself. Racing up the stairs to her door was a task he completed in less than five minutes. If he were still in the marines, all the new people would be in awe of him and the damn good shape he was still in.

He knocked on her door and just as with the phone calls, he waited for her to answer. No, there was still nothing and now he decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. He took out a pin to pick the lock from his pocket and proceeded to open her door and allow himself access to her apartment - it was just to see if she was alright, he tried to convince himself.

He pushed the door open and his jaw fell open when he saw the sight that greeted him. "Gibbs, what the hell are you doing here?" Kate asked her eyes wide with surprise as she eyed her boss standing in her apartment and… was he ogling her? His mouth went dry and he heaved in a deep breath, letting his lungs fill up with all the oxygen his brain needed at this point to function to its best ability.

"Gibbs," she tried again, and this time she managed to get his attention and she locked her gaze with his. "I tried calling you, but I didn't get a response," he started… "And so you drove half way across town just to come and see if I was alive?" she asked him, half-serious and the other half sarcastic. He opened his mouth in an attempt to form a response but his brain refused to function and he closed it without saying anything.

He repeated the action once more and then stopped, knowing he felt and looked like a fish out of water. He was just not used to being in situations like this, not that he minded it, though. His mind was focused on the bead of water that was threatening to fall from her ear onto the soft, not very thin material of the towel. Oh, this was a bad idea, he thought to himself. He should have just called Abby or McGee to come and see if she was alright.

There was no need for him to come here and subject himself to seeing something he wanted so badly, but couldn't have at all. This was pure seduction at its best and he was sure she had no idea of the reaction his body was having to her appearance at that moment. She was going to drive him insane just by standing the way she was, and he was sure that if it were anyone but him standing across her, she would have already used a move he had taught her in gym practice on them.

Still it did nothing to stop the images being conjured up in his mind about where this could lead, not that he wanted it to lead to anything but he was a man and he could not help that his mind ran into the gutter when he was confronted by a woman wearing nothing but a towel and beads of water trailing down her sun kissed skin, and an enticing smile on her lips. No this was wading into uncharted waters, and he was asking for trouble.

He could handle Special Agent Caitlin Todd in her pristine work suits;

He could handle Special Agent Caitlin Todd in civvies, especially the little green sweater that had a low front cut;

He could handle Special Agent Caitlin Todd in her NCIS garb;

And he could also handle said Special Agent Caitlin Todd in red lingerie - just barely;

But this…. This he was sure was going to give him heart palpitations for a long time to come.

"Like what you see, Special Agent Jethro Gibbs?" she asked him, pausing between every word she said hoping it would give the effect she wanted. Her voice barely a whisper, and her were brown eyes sparkling with mischief. "I can't see what's hidden beneath the towel," he informed her while reaching out his hand and catching the drop of water that had finally fell from her ear. The sound of his name coming from her mouth-evoked feelings of such passion in him that he did not know what to do. He was a confused, tormented man at the moment.

He stepped up closer to her, "If I could get a glimpse of what you're hiding under that I'd be able to tell you if I like what I see," he stated drolly, still keeping up with her flirtatious banter. One hand moved up to where the towel end was folded into the other and his other hand had settled on her hip, effectively pulling her closer into him. Her hands landed up on his chest, unsure of what he was about to do next, hoping like mad, that he would not pull the towel away from her still covered body.

She could feel the heat from his hand radiating through the towel onto her hip and she shivered slightly, partly from excitement and partly from the cool breeze that had somehow found a way into her apartment. He started undoing the towel from where it was tied up and she let out a little gasp of horror. "You wouldn't dare," she challenged and scolded him at the same time. Gibbs took neither tone into consideration and continued on his mission. His lip merely turned up in one corner and his blue eyes shone with roguishness.

She felt the towel come loose and she cringed hoping against all hope that he would not let it fall to the ground. But his focus was no longer on the piece of material she had wrapped herself in, but on her right clavicle. His finger was trailing a path on her shoulder, along with the droplets that were falling from her hair onto her glistening skin. His mouth found residence there not long after and Kate had to bite back her reaction from feeling his mouth on her skin.

He kissed her shoulder and made his way up to her neck and just behind her ear, leaving a flaming trail as he moved up. She in turn craned her neck as much as she could, giving him access to as much skin as he wanted. But that was not where the escapade ended, he wanted much more than that and his mouth found hers in a matter of seconds.

He pressed his lips to hers and she leaned into him. She smelled the sawdust on his clothes and tasted the coffee on his lips. She had moved into him, eliminating the already small distance between them. Their mouths melded into each other and soon enough the kiss had changed from platonic to a heated, passion-filled frenzy that neither could get enough of. Her hands had found residence on the nape of his neck and the back of his head, her fingers running through the soft silver strands.

She was first to break the kiss when her lungs screamed for oxygen and her brain had somehow decided to start functioning again and she was reminded of the relationship she shared with the man standing in her apartment and kissing her. "We're way past the point of no return," she thought to herself and he was the one who started this anyway, but she was the one who was going to finish it.

She pulled away from him and she felt the towel slip lower on her body. Still it had not slipped low enough to reveal anything and she heard Gibbs groan in desire. She could taunt him a bit more as he had done to her on occasion when that damn redhead had come to pick him up from work. She held the material securely around her and walked away to her bedroom.

"Great going, Gibbs, you were just supposed to see if she was alive and leave, but here you are making out with your very beautiful subordinate, like you're darned teenagers," he riled himself. His train of thought was cut short however, when he felt the weight of her towel land on his head and he heard her say…

"I thought you wanted to see what was concealed under the towel, Special Agent Gibbs."

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A/N 2: I know I said I was goign to stop writing but then I'd have no place to vent or express myself so I guess I was wrong. 

Well thats it for this one. I might continue it, if I get a better idea on where to take this.

Read and review as usual

Thanks to alix33 for betaing for me. I never say thank you often enough to her.

Happy New Year guys hope you guys have a blast this year.

Hellraiser.


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